1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is applicable to vehicles, such as automobiles, and relates to a manual window apparatus for opening and closing a window through manual operation of a handle, and more specifically to a manual window apparatus having a simplified assembling process.
2. Background Art
Various types of manual window apparatuses for manually opening and closing windows of a motor vehicle have been proposed, and a wire-type window apparatus has been proposed with merits in size reduction of the window apparatus and also in space reduction.
FIG. 4 shows a simplified structure of a conventional window apparatus 10, wherein, directly under a window glass 11 for opening and closing an opening of a motor vehicle, a rail 12 is securely supported on a motor vehicle body in an opening-closing direction of the window glass 11, and a slider 13 is mounted on the rail 12 so as to allow sliding in longitudinal directions with the window glass 11 being supported by the rail 12. At upper and lower ends of the rail 12, pulleys 14 are securely fixed, and an intermediate part of a wire 15 which is wound around the pulleys is extended along the rail 12 and joined with the slider 13 at a portion thereof. Both end parts of the wire 15 are inserted through guide tubes 16 and joined with a handle unit 17. The handle unit 17 is provided with a handle (not shown in the figure) to be rotated manually by a passenger. The window glass 11 moves up and down when the slider 13 is transferred along the rail by the wire 15 when the handle is rotated.
FIG. 5 shows a perspective assembly view of a conventional handle unit as an example of the above-described handle unit 17. The conventional handle unit 200 is provided with a handle shaft 220 to be axially revolved by a rotational operation of a handle, a wire drum 280 for transfer of the wire 15 when the handle shaft 220 is revolved axially, a balance spring 270 for reducing a difference in the operating forces at times of lifting (closing) and lowering (opening) the window glass 11 (the difference being due to the weight of the window glass) through accumulation of rotational force at the handle while the window glass 11 is being lowered and application of the accumulated force as an assisting force while the window glass is being lifted, a spring hanger 260 for connecting an end part of the balance spring 270 to the handle shaft 220, and a brake spring 240 for retaining the window glass 11 at an opening or closing position at that moment when the handle rotation is stopped. The handle shaft 220 has a spring sheet 250 attached thereto to engage the brake spring 240 with the handle shaft 220. The handle shaft 220, the spring sheet 250, the wire drum 280, the balance spring 270, the spring hanger 260 and the brake spring 240, which are mounted inside a casing that is composed of a base 210 and a cover 290, constitute a unit component.
When this handle unit 200 is assembled, first, the balance spring 270 is placed inside a cylindrical cavity 211 which is formed in the base 210 and an inner circumferential end is locked by a part of the base 210. Next, the spring hanger 260 is mounted on the balance spring 270, and the outer circumferential end of the balance spring 270 is locked by the spring hanger 260. The wire drum 280 is mounted on the spring hanger 260 so as to be unified with the spring hanger 260 in a circumferential direction, and then the brake spring 240 is mounted on the wire drum 280/spring hanger 260. Next, the handle shaft 220 is inserted into the wire drum 280 and a shaft hole formed in the spring hanger 260 and simultaneously both end parts of the brake spring 240 are locked between the spring hanger 260 and the spring sheet 250 which is provided as part of the handle shaft 220 in the shape of a circle with a cut-out portion. Finally, a cover 290 which has a frame drum part 291 formed as a round depression as an integral part thereof for covering the outer circumference of the brake spring 240 is placed over and then secured to the base 210 with screws or other fasteners (not shown in the figure).
The conventional handle unit 200, in which the balance spring 270 is internally mounted after it has been placed inside the cylindrical cavity 211 in the base 210 and in which, with the spring hanger 260 placed thereon, the outer circumferential end part of the balance spring 270 is locked by the spring hanger 260, requires experience and a long time to assemble due to the fact that the assembling operator must work blindly without visually checking the locking of the outer circumferential end part and the spring hanger 260, since the outer circumferential end part is positioned under the spring hanger 260. Moreover, the process of winding a wire 15 around the assembled wire drum 280, while preventing the wire drum 280 and the spring hanger 260 from being removed from the balance spring 270 by keeping pressure on them during the winding operation, decreases the efficiency of the wire winding operation.
The conventional handle unit has another problem. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3(b), the handle unit 200 is secured to the inner panel 18 with the side for attachment of a handle facing the inside of the vehicle. As described above, when the cover 290 on the side for attachment of the handle is secured to the inner panel 18 with brackets 292 and bolts 293, the wire 15 is positioned in close proximity to the inner panel 18 since the wire drum 280 is positioned on the cover 290 side, and thus there is a fear that the wire 15 in the proximity of area X may interfere with the inner panel 18 to prevent smooth opening-closing operations. In this case, if an attempt is made to position the wire 15 far from the inner panel 18, the dimension D2 in the figure becomes large and, consequently, the consistency of the clearance of the window glass cannot be maintained resulting in difficulty in layout of the window apparatus.
The present invention is intended to provide a manual window apparatus wherein efficiency in the handle unit assembling work is improved and also wherein consistency in window glass layout for attachment to the motor vehicles can be realized.